Say you'll Haunt Me {Bradley}

Lexi hummed to herself while she lay on her back and underneath the large device she was working on. Faintly music played in the background from the music player she had plugged into the company computer. Lifting the tool she held in her fingers, the blonde revved it up while she focused on the object she was going to be fixing. "So you found out today you life's not the same~" Grunting under her breath while singing along with the song coming from the computer, Lexi scooted up further underneath the large object and started unscrewing the bolt that held the underside up. "Not quite as perfect as it was yeeeesterday." With the underside off, she squinted her blue eyes upward and checked out the mess of wiring and controls that were there. Well shoot...for not having been around when they had started the creation of this gizmo, Amelia was sure having a lot of faith in her, going off to finish some business and leaving Lexi by herself to fix the malfunction that had been showing up.

"When you were just getting in the groove, now you're hmm hmm hmmmm hmm.", she finished humming as she forgot the lyrics. Reaching up an arm, she brushed her bangs out of her eyes and blinked to focus once before her eyes returned more to the control panel she was supposed to be fixing. "Hmmm..." Reaching up a hand, she checked once more to make sure the machine was powered off before she clasped one of the wires with her fingernails. Pulling it down, her blue eyes inspected the wiring before tracing it to where it sent to. Ahh, so that particular wire and circuit had fried. That would account for what seemed to be going wrong with it.

Resting her electronic tool down on her stomach, Lexi reached a hand down to the floor to get the wire cutters that she knew was there. Huffing out a breath to once more move the bangs from her eyes that continued to fall in place, she positioned the tool at the base of the wire and snipped at the end. A moment later the entire wire came off in her hands. Slipping her hands up, Lexi dropped the goggled headset over her eyes to shield them while she would start to weld. That being done, she obtained the new wire from her right and started fusing it back together with the base using the electric arc she'd placed on her stomach a minute before. Biting her lip in concentration, the song lulling behind her was all but forgotten. With deft fingers she finished the procedure, dropped the tool, slipped up her protective goggles and peered closer at her work.

Satisfied, she waited a moment to allow to cool before she snatched up another tool and went about stripping the wire and preparing to place it back in the control panel. If this machine worked, it would be a miracle. When she had heard about what was going on around Gaia - what with the weird creatures and disappearances - Lexi had been surprised to hear that a machine that was sensitive to the readings those creatures emitted and could show where they were had impressed her greatly. This was a larger version of those they hoped to make that each of those tasked with the mission of finding out where the creatures were coming from would carry. Mostly, that included only the turks, as they were the ones that were out in the field and actually risking their lives. It would be nice to be able to see the creatures coming before they were trying to chomp on their arm...

Bradley had been trekking down the long hallway for at least half an hour by now. Biting his lip, he glanced around for any signs that might point him in the right direction. Once again, he seemed to have taken the wrong turn. He was suppose to have met with the weapon's engineer on the latest development about the latest project. It was a device to help those out in the field detect those blasted creatures that had been popping up everywhere. It wasn't easy to notice them until they were nearly ready to rip one's face off.

"Why does it always have to be me that gets lost?!" Bradley exclaimed with an exasperated sigh. He had to have passed that same hallway three times now, at least he had thought so. Coming to a stop, he looked around himself again for anything that might help point him in the right direction. He knew he had gone down the area where the lab was suppose to be. The issue now was just finding the right hallway and doorway leading into the place!

"AHA! A floor map!" Bradley exclaimed. It had been resting on the far wall next to the water bubbler. Hurrying over, Bradley skimmed the contents before finally locating the weapon's development department. Once he found the right one, Bradley took out his PHS and snapped a picture of it. "This should do it!" he stated. With that, Bradley slowly headed down the hallway and took a left. By the time he found the lab, Amelia had already gone to attend to some other business that needed her attention. Bradley would have missed the weapon's engineer.

"And...here we are, whew!" Bradley stated before tapping in a code and stepping in when the doors slid open to permit him. From the outside, no one would have thought that the room within was so large. On the opposite end, there were sliding doors as well that lead out to the outside for the personnel handling the machinery to get in and out with large weapons and machines. "Hmmm..." Bradley said to himself as he heard the music. Someone had to be here, why else would the music be left on?

Wandering over toward the source, Bradley could hear someone humming as they tinkered with the machine they were attending to. Had he come at a bad time? Or was Amelia simply working while she was waiting for him? Clearing his throat, Bradley walked over to the machine. He could see someone's legs sticking out from underneath. He was going to assume that it was Amelia. He hadn't known that she had an assistant. After all, Bradley hadn't come here all that often to know.

"Um...excuse me? Miss Braye?" Bradley called down to her in hopes that he could be overheard over the loud music. If not, he might have to resort to turning it down. He didn't want to be impolite so he tried this method first.

After the rain

The sky turns to a different shade of blue and all those doubts have drifted out of you

For another minute Lexi studied the control panel beneath the machine in great detail. She sure didn't want to get this wrong, after all. ShinRa wasn't paying her to make things that turned out to be failures. Honestly, as her first project, Lexi couldn't help but be nervous about it. It wasn't that she didn't have confidence in her ability to fix and create things...but this wasn't just some project she would be impressing the neighbor with. No, this was far above some new way to beat eggs so you didn't have to do it by hand. This was ShinRa, and the president of ShinRa. The elite Turks. This was a big deal, not only to her, but potentially the world if it came to that. Hopefully with this machine, they could set up stations and actually read information off the creatures that had been popping up around Gaia. Lexi hadn't seen them herself, but from the official reports that came from a few of the turks, it seemed like they had been infused with some sort of tainted...lifestream. If that was possible. Somewhat like the geostigma.

Well, no matter really, they would find out soon enough - at least hopefully, if this machine worked. Reaching up her arm, Lexi brushed her bangs away with the crook on the underside of her elbow and peered again at the wire she had on her hand. This was what the problem had been with the machine before. Something with the consistency had been off, leaving it to power on at times and at times to not. Hopefully this faulty wiring would fix it. If there was one thing they wouldn't want, it was for it to power off without reason and lose all the data they had obtained when they got the chance. That would be highly annoying. She was sure the turks - even with how wild they seemed to be about dangerous situations - didn't want to be out there risking their lives more times than they had to.

Biting her lip in concentration, Lexi finished stripping the wire and placing it in the appropriate end. For a moment she thought she heard something. Pausing, she leaned to the side a bit and attempted to listen again, but all she heard was the faint music in the background. Shrugging it off, Lexi studied the wiring box and scanned it to make sure she had done it right. Satisfied when the machine started to power up, the girl patted it and smiled to herself. Perhaps that had been an easier fix than she had thought. Flipping onto her stomach, she started to wiggle out from under the machine. Rolling the last few feet, she bounced to her feet and nearly plowed into another person. Yelping slightly, Lexi jumped back in surprise and then glanced up to see who it was. 'Oh no.' Her backward motion combined with the surprise and the shock of seeing a turk - a certain turk - standing there led to her landing on her butt. "Uff!", she grunted when she hit her butt. Almost immediately embarrassment washed over her and she bounced back to her feet, hurridly wiping off her butt and the back of her legs. Did she have grease on her face? She couldn't remember. Lexi nervously brushed a hand across her face - unknowingly putting a streak of grease there when there had been none previously. "Oh, uh...hi! I didn't, uh...hear you come in.", she stuttered out a bit. Wetting her lips, she tucked some hair behind her ear. "Are you looking for Amelia?", she finally asked. A bit awkwardly, she tried to figure out what to do with her hands. Swallowing hard, she attempted to let them hang normally. Unfortunately she felt a bit like a gorilla when she tried that. Biting her lip, she tried to lean against her machine. That seemed weird too. Finally she ended up just clasping them in front of her and attempting to not feel so weird about it.

Notes: Poor Lexi can't handle Bradley being there Wearing: I shall...link something when my internet loves me Setting: the research room Tagged: Bradley  Words:723

made by Δ ashy of caution; shine

Bradley waited patiently, unsure if the person had even heard him. He had thought it was Amelia at first as he stood there. He gave a start when the person, after wriggling free from under the machine had decided at that moment to suddenly roll and bounce up onto her feet then fell backwards in her surprise. Bradley would have done the same if he wasn't too busy being surprised to find that it hadn't been Amelia but someone else. She had to be the new girl mechanic they had. Someone that was helping Amelia or had been a coworker.

"Er..I'm sorry, are you alri-?" Bradley tried to say before the woman had leapt to her feet again as she wiped off her butt and legs. There had noticeably been grease all over the woman but then again, it was to be expected considering the profession she had been in. Bradley didn't mind getting dirty on the job himself. However, he couldn't help but notice when she had accidentally smeared grease on her face. For her sake, since she seemed nervous as it already was, Bradley opted to not tell her. It would be rude, after all and Bradley wasn't rude. In fact, he was a gentleman. A polite and friendly smile appeared then on his face as he gave a bit of a laugh.

"I'm sorry for that. I hope I didn't frighten you too badly."

The young Turk didn't mean to frighten the girl. Oddly enough, the more he looked at her, the more familiar she had become. Had he seen her once before? When she questioned him about Amelia, Bradley gave a nod. "Yes, I am. Is she here?" Bradley asked her curiously as he glanced around. It looked as though this girl was the only one here. Bringing his gaze back over to Lexi, Bradley sighed in exasperation. "I'm late, aren't I? I was suppose to meet with her to discuss the new machinery that was being worked on." Bradley just shook his head for a moment before looking back over at Lexi. Maybe she could at least answer what questions he had?

"So um...what's your name? Not trying to be weird or anything but...have we met?" Bradley asked Lexi. His eyes looked genuinely curious. He didn't realize that this particular girl held such a huge crush on him. In fact, he didn't realize that he was the main reason why this girl was so nervous around him right now. As he looked back at her, Bradley couldn't help but modestly notice her looks. Although she was covered in messy grease, Bradley could tell that she was a cutie. Of course, Bradley was far too modest to admit such things right off. He wasn't like some of the more bolder Turks like Reno and a few others.

After the rain

The sky turns to a different shade of blue and all those doubts have drifted out of you

Lexi considered running off in terror. And dousing herself in cold water. She also considered leaping back under the machine she was currently making and pretending she wasn't actually there. And of course, there was always the thought that she could pretend she was actually just a hologram of the real Lexi Marsden...er...Kieff...she had to remember the last name she had made up to escape her family. Lexi was only distracted on her own past for a few moments though, before her mind returned to the matter at hand. Bradley. Right in front of her. Looking quite nice. Very nice...to the point where it was distracting her from making a quick escape and fleeing for her life. And flee she wanted to. His question was late to reach her ears, and she colored slightly in response. Of course she had to go and fall on her butt when she was around the one person in the world she cared about impressing. Alright...so there were other people, but not in the same way.

"It's great! Well...not great-...well, not bad.", she stuttered out for a bit. Finally, wanting to kick herself, Lexi sighed deeply and gave him a lopsided grin. "I mean, I'm not hurt or anything." Not hurt or anything...what was wrong with her? If he hadn't been watching, she might have slapped her palm against her forehead and collapsed to the ground to groan about how stupid she sounded. Instead, she fidgeted and attempted to figure out a position to keep her hands in that didn't look awkward. So far, she hadn't found anything.

And then her mind completely emptied as to who 'she' was. Despite her just commenting on it, Lexi had been so busy attempting to get over her weird inability to function that she forgot what they had been talking about. "Uh...um..." Furrowing her eyebrows, she thought fast. Thankfully it clicked a moment later, and she beamed at him in success. "Nope! She stepped out for a while, I guess she must have had something to talk to Mr. Shinra about...or somebody else. I guess I wasn't really paying close enough attention when she mentioned it.", Lexi finished somewhat sheepishly.

Right! This was the turk that she had mentioned would come down. Lexi could feel the red creeping up the back of her neck. Explaining this machine to a turk was one thing...explaining it to the biggest crush she'd ever had was quite another. Why couldn't it have been any other turk? Even that bald, quiet one would have been less nerve wracking! For a moment she considered copping out and telling him when Amelia would be back, but quelled the thought pretty quickly. She would have to explain to Amelia why she sent him away too, and she didn't look forward to doing that. "Oh, she uh...well, I can explain about the device too. I've done a lot of the work on it lately." If she lived through this, it would be a miracle.

Her name? Oh no...would he realize who she was? Lexi figured she had to have changed a lot since she was in Bone Village...but you couldn't be too sure. "Lexi, uh...Kieff. You're Bradley, right?" Of course he was Bradley. But she tried to play it off like she at least wasn't sure who it was. Had they met? "Oh...um...well, you know." No, she was sure he didn't know. How was she supposed to say she'd been part of the family of trash that had created such trouble around Bone Village? It was hard enough to admit that she was part of that family to herself, let alone someone like Bradley, with a wealthy family, a powerful job and...well, everything else he had. Maybe he wouldn't know her grandma. "I visited my grandma in Bone Village a few times when I was younger." She wasn't sure seven years was the same as 'visiting a few times', but she didn't really want to admit who she was just yet.

Notes:Oh the awkward Lexi Wearing:Here! Setting: the research room Tagged: Bradley Words: 745

made by Δ ashy of caution; shine

Bradley couldn’t help but give Lexi a puzzled look when she stated that it had been great. It took him a moment to realize that she meant she wasn’t hurt. A light, relieved smile appeared on his face then. ”That’s good. I wouldn’t want for someone to end up hurt because of me over something like this.” He meant it too as he beamed at her, ever the radiant and cheerful one.

When she answered his question as to where Amelia might’ve been, the blond Turk let out a bit of an exasperated sigh. It wasn’t because he was upset with Lexi. Bringing up a hand to his forehead, Bradley sighed as he turned his head to the side in his frustration. How could he be such a lost cause when it came to finding places? He always seemed to get himself terribly lost and because of it, ended up late at times to things like this. Well, at least it wasn’t anything too important.

”Darn, why did I have to go and get myself lost?” he grumbled. Then, Lexi brought attention onto herself again. Removing his hand from his forehead, Bradley blinked over at her for a moment while she spoke. She could explain the machine to him? A huge sense of relief washed over him then. He wasn’t at a total loss!

”Oh, could you? It would be appreciated. I just need to know how repairs are going on it and what we Turks need to know about the device.”

Then, he realized how familiar she had looked and he had questioned her on who she was. The girl seemed to become flustered before answering him. Her name was Lexi Kieff. Bradley furrowed a brow thoughtfully as he brought a hand up to hold and rub his chin. ”Huh, your first name sounds familiar but I don’t think I knew of the last name Kieff…but you do look familiar,” he stated. It wasn’t until Lexi mentioned that she had visited her grandmother in Bone Village when he realized that maybe he had seen her a time or two then. After all, Bone Village wasn’t that big of a place. Everyone knew everyone.

”AHA! That must be it! I must’ve seen you walking around town a time or two…you sure you didn’t go to school in Bone Village? I could’ve sworn I might’ve seen you wandering the halls of the school a time or two.”

After the rain

The sky turns to a different shade of blue and all those doubts have drifted out of you

Despite being nearly paralyzed with...well, she wasn't sure what, Lexi couldn't help but draw back a bit when he mentioned hurting people. She bit her lip in mild distress. Did he know? Did he know how much hurting her family had done, even to his own town and his own family? She could remember the rumors and lies they had spread about the more wealthy families in Bone Village when they had been there. They hated the wealthy. Lexi herself had grown up hearing about the 'damned arrogant pigs' that lived in larger houses or had nice things. She had always been drawn to nice things, perhaps even envied them, but she had never once thought badly about someone who had more than she did. While she was worrying about that, however, she took the time to notice that he seemed entirely relaxed, even with a large smile lighting his features. No...he must just be talking about this situation, not past things. Visibly she relaxed, even going so far as grinning in return. "Well, not hurt!", she giggled happily, raising her palms up to show off her health.

She figured he might be upset about Amelia, but instead of noticing that, she picked out what he said. "You...get lost? I do that all the time.", she sighed in frustration. "Amelia doesn't ask me to go get coffee anymore.", she said with a smile. Somehow, that just made her want to hug him - but she might die if she did. After all, it wasn't every day you got to hug a guy like Bradley. For heaven sake, how did any girl manage that without going all fluttery in her chest? Lexi was already feeling fluttery and she was only thinking about it.

Onto...other things that didn't involve touching him though. Lexi could swear she felt the heat creeping up the back of her neck, but instead of focusing on it, she turned her attention back to 'her baby' and tried to get distracted there. She had practically put her last week of life into this machine. Motioning him over, Lexi knelt down and poked a few buttons on the control panel. A whirring noise followed by the machine lighting up. "Okay, so when you and Cissnei retrieved some samples from the icky monsters, we were able to extract some DNA and fiddle around with it. It appears that it's the DNA of the common monster, but it also seems to have been modified with...well, something else. We're not quite sure yet. What we do know, is that whatever they put in the DNA, emits some sort of signal. This machine is sensitive to that same signal, and can harvest that signal to not only scan and read that so we can get more data, but I'm also installing a piece that should be able to latch onto that modified DNA so we can track it. Usually things that are created view their place of, well, creation, as their home, and they will return to it eventually. We're hoping that once we have this, we can not only scan, but track and locate the source of the monsters with it." She had gotten so far into her comment on the machine, she was nearly out of breath by the time she slowed down and stopped to give him a few seconds to reply. "Do you, uh, have any questions?"

Unfortunately, his question was who she was. Lexi did not want to get into that conversation, heaven only knew how badly she didn't. If there was anything she was downright ashamed of, it was her involvement or relation to her family. She didn't want to be, and she sure didn't approve, but people tended to label you based on what your family did. If that was the case, she wouldn't get a very high viewpoint on her. And now he was asking about school. Lexi gulped a little bit. She had tried to remain as invisible as she had possibly been able to when she was going to school, Lexi couldn't avoid that she had stood out in that the teachers - and thus the class - because the harder subjects, like math and science, she had been able to understand really well. "Oh...I guess I might. I kind of bounced around a lot in schools, so I don't remember half of them." While that was true, what wasn't was that Lexi did remember Bone Village, very well.

Notes: They're cute XD Wearing: That one I linked! Setting: the research room Tagged: Bradley Words:792

made by Δ ashy of caution; shine

It was a relief to know that Bradley hadn’t accidentally gotten Lexi hurt because of his sudden arrival. Now that he knew she was fine, even as she giggled, he smiled all the more. ”Glad to hear it.” If anyone were to look at Bradley, he was an oblivious charmer. The Turk, although not innocent by any means when it came to his job, had a social innocence about him. When it came to other people, he was amiable and talkative. In fact, he had himself somewhat of a fangirl base amongst the Shinra female employees but he didn’t seem to notice. Then again, Cissnei probably kept an eye on him for him. Cissnei served as his surrogate mother figure in the Turks. No doubt, she wouldn’t let anyone even get near Bradley unless she thought they were good enough. Unfortunately, nobody ever really was to Cissnei so Bradley had no clue about those that were enamored with him.

When he had mentioned how he had gotten lost, the blond Turk looked back at Lexi with raised brows as she told him that she also got lost. ”Really? You get lost too?!” he repeated. It was clear by the sound of his voice that he was surprised and excited. It was exciting to know that he wasn’t the only person to get so easily lost all the time. Bradley had thought he was he only one with a terrible sense of direction.

”Heh, my friends won’t…even let me take the lead anymore, heh!” Bradley replied, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly when he said it. Oh, how he remembered the time when poor Cissnei ended up lost because of Bradley’s terrible sense of direction. If it hadn’t been for Ethan, Cissnei wouldn’t have found them.

As Lexi turned toward the machine, Bradley stepped over to stand alongside her as he peered up at it. He didn’t realize this simple action might make Lexi nervous as he did so. His attention was entirely on the machine while listening to what Lexi was saying. According to Lexi, the DNA of the monsters was normal except modified to an extent. The DNA even held some sort of unique signal. The machine could pick up on it and decipher the signal to help locate these monsters.

”Now that certainly sounds helpful. I wouldn’t want one of those buggers trying to bite my arm off again.”

Bradley, when he had gone into the Sleeping Forest with Cissnei, had been lucky to come out in one piece. They were the Turks but it had been a very close shave. ”So, collects data on them and tracks them, that sounds very good. I’ll be sure to let my fellow Turks know of this. Thank you, Ms. Keiff.”

When Lexi had asked him if he had any questions, the blond looked thoughtful. ”Ah! How long do you think before we can take it out on the field?” Bradley asked her. It was a viable question. Rufus Shinra was always about production and efficiency. Amelia Braye gave it to them and with Lexi in tow it seemed that they were doing a pretty good job here.

As Lexi mentioned that she had bounced around a lot of schools and she barely remembered half of them, he gave a nod. ”That had to have been a shame…traveling so much. Yet, exciting in a way, I imagine. Well, it was nice meeting you again, Lexi.”